Monthly Archives: January 2018

With his 3 ¾-length victory in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans, the freshly minted 3-year-old Instilled Regard (by Arch) put another stamp on his passport along the Triple Crown trail.

Previously second in the G1 Los Alamitos Futurity after the disqualification of Solomini (Curlin), Instilled Regard has now won two races, with a pair of seconds and a third from 5 starts. Second on debut to American Pharoah’s younger brother Saint Patrick’s Day (Pioneerof the Nile), Instilled Regard won an 8 ½-furlong maiden in his third start, then was placed in the Los Alamitos Futurity to earn his first level of consideration for serious things this season.

Owner Larry Best, who races under the name OXO Racing LLC, made the decision to ship Instilled Regard to New Orleans for the Lecomte, according to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, and it worked out well. The dark bay Arch colt sat off the early pace to pounce down the stretch and win convincingly from the previously undefeated Tapit colt Principe Guilherme.

Bred in Kentucky by KatieRich Farms, Instilled Regard was a $110,000 RNA at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2016, then sold at the 2017 Ocala Breeders March Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training for $1.05 million. Consigned by Tom McCrocklin, Instilled Regard had worked a flaming quarter-mile in :20 4/5.

The colt’s sales work was as impressive in the estimation of DataTrack International’s stride evaluation technology as it was on the stopwatch. Instilled Regard earned a Group 1 designation for exceeding all the internal stride performance benchmarks, and he scored a BreezeFig of 70, which is very good indeed.

Arch – son of leading sire Kris S. (by Roberto) was a top sales yearling, a Grade 1 winner, and then a sire of G1 winners on dirt and turf around the world. (Claiborne – Dell Hancock photo)

Instilled Regard is the 62nd stakes winner and 37th graded stakes winner by Arch, who died two years ago at age 21.

A sale-topping yearling and G1 winner during his racing career, Arch was a striking horse who produced some good sales yearlings and even more good racers. Among his G1 winners alone are champion Blame, also a sire at Claiborne Farm; Arravale, Horse of the Year in Canada; Overarching, three times a champion in South Africa; Les Arcs, a highweighted sprinter in Europe; Grand Arch (Shadwell Turf Mile; It Tiz Well (2017 Cotillion); and Hymn Book (Donn Handicap).

The Lecomte winner is out of the Forestry mare Enhancing, a daughter of champion Heavenly Prize, a big, rangy mare by the beautifully proportioned Seeking the Gold (Mr. Prospector). Heavenly Prize was one of two champion fillies (along with Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Flanders) from the first two crops by Seeking the Gold who helped cement that horse’s reputation as an elite sire.

Heavenly Prize was the Eclipse Award winner in 1994 as champion 3-year-old filly and won half of her 18 starts, including eight G1 stakes such as the Frizette, Beldame, Alabama, and Apple Blossom.

At stud, Heavenly Prize produced two dissimilar stakes-winning sons of Storm Cat. Two-time G1 winner Good Reward was a bay more in the mold of Seeking the Gold, and G2 winner Pure Prize was a tall, brawny version of Storm Cat who wasn’t the easiest horse to produce at this best but was mighty talented. At stud, the bright chestnut Pure Prize was much the better sire in North and South America.

The first and last of these are full siblings to the dam of Heavenly Prize. If there was some feeling that this family might be losing its G1 edge after Heavenly Prize managed to produce “only” one winner at that level, her daughter Enhancing is helping put the ship to rights with G3 winner and G1-placed Instilled Regard, who is his dam’s third named foal. Enhancing has a 2-year-old filly by Hard Spun (Danzig) named Heavenly Sis and produced a colt by American Pharoah in 2017, which is now a yearling.

Pulses are quickening in Kentucky and elsewhere around the country because now and in the near future, farms are being blessed with the births of the first foals by top young sire prospects like classic winner and Horse of the Year California Chrome (by Lucky Pulpit), 2015 champion 2-year-old colt and 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist (Uncle Mo), 2016 Preakness Stakes Exaggerator (Curlin), champion European 2-year-old Air Force Blue (War Front), champion turf horse Flintshire (Dansili), champion sprinter Runhappy (Super Saver), and multiple G1 winner Frosted (Tapit), who had the highest entering stud fee of any sire in 2017.

And the especially intriguing factor is that the other three come from the Nasrullah line. California Chrome and Frosted hail from the A.P. Indy branch of this fabled sire line through different sons of Pulpit, and the third is Nyquist, who is the latest premium performer in an outlier male line descending through Caro and his high-class juvenile son Siberian Express to the superb older horse In Excess, his best son Indian Charlie, and leading sire Uncle Mo.

A principal reason that the rising fortune of the Nasrullah line is of interest lies in the fact that a generation ago, more than a few observers would have consigned the line to the scrap heap.

The line was striving to find a place in Europe through the good services of Blushing Groom, but in the States, the Bold Ruler tribe, which had held sway through the 1960s and much of the 1970s, had experienced a precipitate decline and was generally considered “yesterday’s news” in breeding circles.

The development of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew as a premier sire, although many thought he was not the most likely candidate for such honors, breathed life and sustenance into the line through those lean years when everything Raise a Native and Northern Dancer was the rage.

Seattle Slew’s best son A.P. Indy added further stature to the line with his own successes on the racetrack and as a leading sire. Stallion sons of A.P. Indy became almost commonplace, and his high-class son Pulpit guaranteed the line further glory with three-time leading sire Tapit, as well as two-time classic winner California Chrome, who is a grandson of Pulpit.

In addition, leading sires like Bernardini, Congrats, Flatter, Malibu Moon, and Mineshaft continue to spread A.P. Indy’s influence through the breed to good effect. And the young sire Honor Code is one of the country’s most promising stallions, with his first crop now being yearlings.

This line’s beneficial qualities for speed and stamina, classic quality and soundness, as well as a hearty appreciation for racing on dirt courses, all appear factors that will help its future grow bright and continue as a primary factor in American breeding.

The horses entering stud in Kentucky for 2018 with fees below $20,000 live foal include some fairly well-known young prospects, as well as others that are flying below the radar.

Bird Song – is a son of leading sire Unbridled’s Song, whose sire Unbridled began his stallion career at Gainesway, where Bird Song retires for the 2018 season. (Gainesway photo)

SELRES_6324a66d-2b3d-4c6d-af1f-2503388dc9adAmong the stallion prospects this year, the pair at the top of this sector of the market are Astern (by Medaglia d’Oro) and Bal a Bali (Put It Back), both at $15,000. Standing at Darley’s Jonabell Farm, Astern is an Australian-bred bay who won stakes at 2 and 3, including the Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes at seven furlongs as a 3-year-old.SELRES_6324a66d-2b3d-4c6d-af1f-2503388dc9ad

Astern showed his best form at distances from five-and-a-half to seven furlongs, more along the lines of progeny by broodmare sire Exceed and Excel, a very fast son of leading sire Danehill. Astern is a half-brother to G1 winner Alizee (Sepoy), and his next three dams are all stakes winners, including fourth dam Triscay, who was champion of her division at 2 and 3.

Standing at Calumet, Bal a Bali is a Brazilian-bred dark brown in the type of In Reality: medium-sized, lengthy, and athletic. This neatly made 8-year-old was a four-time G1 winner in his homeland at 3, when he was champion of his division and Horse of the Year. Brought to the States for racing, the horse developed health issues, including a bout of laminitis, but trainer Dick Mandella brought him round on the racetrack to win twice at the G1 level at age 7 in the Shoemaker Mile and Kilroe Mile.

With 15 victories from 26 starts in six seasons of racing, Bal a Bali possesses a level of hardiness and racing aptitude that are atypical in contemporary American racing. His sire Put It Back, a great-grandson of In Reality and useful sire in Florida, has been a revelation in South America since his export, where he has sired champion after champion.

A half-step below these two in price are sons by two of America’s most in-demand sires: Tapit and Pioneerof the Nile. The Tapit horse is Cupid, who enters stud at Ashford for $12,500 after a career in which he won five stakes, including the G1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, earning more than $1.7 million. A $900,000 yearling of good size and scope, Cupid is a half-brother to graded stakes winners Heart Ashley (Lion Heart) and Ashley’s Kitty (Tale of the Cat). Another expensive Tapit yearling who enters stud in 2018 is Mohaymen, who will stand at Shadwell for $7,500. Sold for $2.2 million as a yearling, Mohaymen is typical of his sire: medium-sized, neatly made, and good-looking. A one-time favored prospect for the 2016 classics, Mohaymen won four times at the G2 level (Nashua, Remsen, Holy Bull, and Fountain of Youth).

In addition to siring Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, Pioneerof the Nile got the wildly popular young sire Cairo Prince, whose first foals just turned 2. But his first-crop yearlings were so appealing and so strongly supported at the sales, there was even greater demand for ‘Pioneer’ sons at stud. And Midnight Storm enters stud at Taylor Made for $12,500. A stakes winner from 3 through 6, Midnight Storm earned more than $1.7 million. His only victory at the top level was the G1 Shoemaker Mile in 2016, but the horse is a five-time winner of G2 stakes and showed his best form when striding freely on the lead like his broodmare sire Bertrando.

Among the stallions at $10,000 is the Pulpit son American Freedom, who is a big and substantially made horse in the mold of grandsire A.P. Indy. Standing at Airdrie, American Freedom won the G3 Iowa Derby but earned his street cred with seconds in the G1 Travers to Arrogate and in the G1 Haskell to Exaggerator.

Also at $10,000 is the Malibu Moon horse Gormley, winner of the 2017 Santa Anita Derby and the 2016 Frontrunner, both at the G1 level, and a winner of more than $1 million. Standing at Spendthrift alongside his famous sire, Gormley is one of two well-regarded sons of the big, bay son of A.P. Indy who enter stud for 2018. The other is the two years older Mr. Z, a contemporary of American Pharoah and Dortmund who was in the frame with the latter when third in the G1 Los Alamitos Futurity. Mr. Z won the Ohio Derby and earned more than $1.1 million. The handsome chestnut stands for $7,500 at Calumet.

Another entering stallion at the $10,000 level is the Quality Road 4-year-old Klimt, winner of the G1 Del Mar Futurity and second in the Frontrunner to Gormley at 2. Klimt was second to West Coast in the Los Alamitos Derby and third to Battle of Midway in the Shared Belief Stakes in his only two starts at 3. A very handsome specimen, Klimt stands at Darby Dan for $10,000. Klimt had the precocious speed to run a quarter at the OBS March sale in :20 4/5 and sold for $435,000.

Another son of the immensely popular young sire Quality Road is that stallion’s first-crop horse Hootenanny. Entering stud at Buck Pond Farm, Hootenanny won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in 2014, when he also won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot and was second in the G1 Prix Morny. Hootenanny did not recapture that form but placed in stakes at 4 and 5, will stand for $5,000 live foal.

The final stallion for $10,000 is the Candy Ride bay Unified, a winner of the G2 Peter Pan at 3 and the G3 Gulfstream Park Sprint over Mind Your Biscuits at 4. Standing at Lane’s End along with his sire and the prosperous young stallion Twirling Candy, Unified is out of stakes-placed Union City, a daughter of Dixie Union like the dams of Mohaymen and Klimt. Unified is a strongly made horse, typical of his sire, and one with the speed to win at sprints and carry his form up to nine furlongs.

Another strong muscled animal is the Buck Pond sire Wildcat Red (D’Wildcat), standing for $7,500. A progressive 3-year-old of 2014, Wildcat Red won the G2 Fountain of Youth and was second in the G1 Florida Derby. Altogether, this horse of the very masculine, Storm Cat type won six races, four stakes, and earned $1.1 million.

There is a son of More Than Ready going to stud for $6,000 at Spendthrift, and he is Tom’s Ready, winner of the G2 Woody Stephens, as well as the G3 Bold Ruler and Ack Ack. A quick-actioned horse with speed, Tom’s Ready earned more than $1 million.

The remaining prospects are all at $5,000. There are a pair at Calumet: Behesht (Sea the Stars), a listed winner at 12 furlongs in France; and Producer (Dutch Art), winner of the G2 Topkapi Trophy in Istanbul and a pair of G3 stakes in England.

The Chilean-bred Tu Brutus enters stud at Crestwood. A winner of two stakes in his homeland, this chestnut son of Scat Daddy was brought to the U.S., where he won the Flat Out Stakes and ran third in the G2 Brooklyn Handicap.

The last horse is Bird Song, a gray son of Unbridled’s Song, like the horse who began this survey, Arrogate. Being the “other” son of Unbridled’s Song to enter stud in 2018 is far from the worst coincidence, and Bird Song won the G2 Alysheba Stakes and G3 Fred Hooper in a racing career with earnings of more than a half-million. Out of champion filly Bird Town (Cape Town), Bird Song traces back through a splendid female family. The scopy gray has good bone and balance, and his presence and ease with his surroundings are a positive reminder of his kinsman across town at Juddmonte Farm.

One of the positive revelations of the 2017 season was the affirmation – generally believed but now thoroughly proven – that the young sire Quality Road is a member of the stallion elite.

On entering stud in 2011, Quality Road was an outstanding prospect. The tall and striking dark horse was one of the very best racing sons of leading sire Elusive Quality (by Gone West), along with double classic winner and champion Smarty Jones, European highweight Raven’s Pass (Breeders’ Cup Classic, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes), and Australian champion Sepoy (Golden Slipper, Blue Diamond Stakes). Furthermore, Quality Road comes from a first-class female family and had a sterling racing career that was highlighted by very fast victories at eight and nine furlongs.

In fact, after his Metropolitan Handicap win in 2010, Quality Road was considered the leader of his division until Blame forcibly dethroned him with a narrow victory in the G1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga. Then, Blame went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Eclipse Award as leading older colt.

Quality Road entered stud at Lane’s End Farm in 2011 as a horse of exciting potential in a markedly down-beat bloodstock market, and the strongest factors the dark bay son of Elusive Quality had going for him were an outstanding physique and the shocking speed he had inherited from his sire, who is one of the conduits for the Mr. Prospector line through Gone West.

Now, the speed and high class that Quality Road showed on the racetrack have brought him to further glory in his newer role as a sire.

With the victory of City of Light in Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, Quality Road rose a notch to end the year in a tie for first place among all sires of graded stakes winners. With 11 GSWs for the year, Quality Road sits in first place with the late and much lamented sire Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), just one GSW ahead of two heavyweights of the American sire ranks: perennial leading sire Tapit (Pulpit) and Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado), both with 10 GSWs each.

Quality Road actually has more graded victories in 2017 than Scat Daddy, although Tapit and Medaglia d’Oro outrank both on that criterion.

Even so, this is lofty company to be keeping, and Quality Road will be getting further recognition for his sire accomplishments. Among his 3-year-olds of 2017 is the filly Abel Tasman, who is generally considered the most likely champion of her division when the results are announced at the Eclipse Awards later this month.

The sire has a second strong candidate for an Eclipse Award for 2017 with the juvenile filly Caledonia Road, who won the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with a dramatic finish that has set her up as the potential champion of her division.

City of Light became the sixth G1 winner for his sire with victory in the Malibu, and the now-4-year-old colt joins Caledonia Road, Abel Tasman (4 G1s: Starlet, Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, Coaching Club American Oaks), Hootenanny (BC Juvenile Turf), Illuminant (Gamely), and Klimt (Del Mar Futurity) as winners for their sire at the top level.

In particular, the ability to sire performers who are effective at the graded stakes level is the hallmark of the contemporary prestige sire, even if other statistical indicators lag. In these, however, Quality Road is well ahead of the breed norms with 76 percent starters (breed norm of about 60 percent), 51 percent winners (42 percent), and 6 percent stakes winners (3 percent).

Not surprisingly with all these credits, Quality Road is the leading fourth-crop sire, and one of his most impressive statistical accomplishments is having an average earnings index (AEI) of 1.96 from mares with a comparable index of 1.64.

Mares with those numbers for a comparable index are indeed mates of quality, but the fact that the horse has been able to improve on them by 20 percent is a serious statistical advance.

For the 2018 season, Quality Road will stand for $70,000 live foal.

In part due to the continued success that their sire has enjoyed, two sons of Quality Road will enter stud in Kentucky in 2018. These are Klimt, who will be standing at Darby Dan Farm for $10,000, and Hootenanny, who will be standing at Buck Pond Farm near Versailles for $5,000. Furthermore, Quality Road’s son Blofeld, winner of the G2 Futurity Stakes and Nashua at 2, will enter stud at Murmur Farm in Maryland for $4,000 for the 2018 season.

** Note: Some readers have asked about the entering stud fee for Quality Road. The horse went to stud at $35,000 and stood at that price for two years, then was available for $25,000 in his third and fourth seasons at stud, and went back to $35,000 after his stock began performing. For 2018, Quality Road’s fee is $70,000 on the strength of his 2017 season that includes a pair of strong contenders for Eclipse Awards: Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road.

The breeding market is increasingly segmented between the “in-demand” set of stallions who will be covering large books of select mares during the 2018 breeding season and the “rest.”

The breakover point in stallion pricing between those heavily in demand is approximately $15,000, and the stallion prospects for 2018 who are priced at $20,000 and up are the focus of this article.

As the pricing should suggest, these boys need no introduction.

Mastery – as he appeared last month at Claiborne – was a hot favorite for the classics. The tall and handsome son of Candy Ride descends from the Unbridled branch of Mr. Prospector. (BitB photo)

But even among the horses in this elite subset of the stallion population, there are some who are clearly of the highest appeal.

The new stallion with the highest stud fee of 2018 is champion Arrogate (by Unbridled’s Song). The strapping gray established his sterling reputation with a series of victories in four races from the 2016 Travers Stakes through the Breeders’ Cup Classic and inaugural Pegasus World Cup to the 2017 Dubai World Cup over Gun Runner. Those efforts earned him a ranking as the most talented horse in the world, according to the Longines assessments of racehorses worldwide.

A striking, round-bodied yearling when purchased for Juddmonte Farms at the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale, Arrogate has grown into a tall, very well-constructed athlete standing about 16.2 at the end of his 4-year-old season. Still looking quite the racehorse when I saw him last week at Juddmonte, Arrogate possesses good bone, excellent scope and quality, plus the mental character and disposition of a champion.

He will stand for $75,000 live foal.

Arrogate’s chief competitor and contemporary, Gun Runner (Candy Ride), finally gained a measure of success against his gray superior when winning the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic, after Arrogate had gone unarguably off form.

Gun Runner, in contrast, has been the marvel of consistency and steady reproduction of form month after month in 2017. The elegant chestnut is little shorter at the wither than his gray rival but is so beautifully balanced that Gun Runner’s height is not obvious till standing beside him.

Gun Runner’s only loss in 2017 was the Dubai World Cup, and the handsome son of Candy Ride came home first in four Grade 1 races this year, beginning with the Stephen Foster, then the Whitney, Woodward, and BC Classic. Out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Quiet Giant, Gun Runner shares some of the excellent qualities of his famous broodmare sire in consistent success at the G1 level.

Currently in training for the 2018 Pegasus, Gun Runner is expected to enter stud in 2018 at Three Chimneys for $70,000 live foal.

Behind that elite pair, the entering stallion prospect with the next-highest fee is 2016 champion 2-year-old colt Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile). A colt of immense talent and promise in 2016, Classic Empire found numerous hurdles to steady progress through his second season.

Delayed in his training due to seemingly minor issues, Classic Empire won the G1 Arkansas Derby as a prep for the Kentucky Derby, where he ran a surprisingly strong fourth between a pair of other entering prospects for 2018, Battle of Midway and Practical Joke.

Then Classic Empire ran a winning race in the Preakness two weeks later, putting it all on the line against his elite competitors, only to tire late and lose in a photo to Cloud Computing. As a result of his best efforts and early form, plus the demand for his sire, Classic Empire stands at Ashford Stud for $35,000 live foal.

Practical Joke (Into Mischief) finished just behind Classic Empire in the 2017 Kentucky Derby, and his additional best form, winning the G1 Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, makes this powerful bay a horse of great interest to breeders for 2018.

In addition, Practical Joke was a top juvenile, winning the G1 Champagne Stakes, and he is by the immensely popular stallion Into Mischief, the best stallion son of Harlan’s Holiday.

Practical Joke stands alongside Classic Empire and others at Ashford, with his fee of $30,000 live foal.

Just below that price point, going to stud for $25,000 live foal, are a pair of entering stallions – Lord Nelson and Mastery. For 2018, they are trying to overcome a lack of recent activity. The longest off-track is Lord Nelson (Pulpit), who was designated for stud in 2017, but laminitis and its complicated recovery put that off a year.

A big, handsome chestnut with great length through the body, Lord Nelson is progressing still from the condition, but all signs are go for his covering a full book in 2018.

Mastery, on the other hand, was the hottest early-book choice for the classics until an injury after his 6 3/4-length victory in the San Felipe Stakes ended his unbeaten career. The “other” son of leading sire Candy Ride entering stud in 2018, Mastery stands 16.2 and is a strikingly handsome bay.

At the next rung of the stud fee ladder among this elite category are a trio of entering stallions priced at $20,000 live foal: Battle of Midway (Smart Strike), Connect (Curlin), and Keen Ice (Curlin).

This trio is notable not only for their form on the racetrack but also their sire line. Two are by leading sire Curlin, the sire of classic winners Exaggerator (Preakness) andPalace Malice (Belmont) who is now standing for $150,000 live foal. And Battle of Midway is by Smart Strike, twice the nation’s leading sire by gross earnings and sire of Preakness Stakes and BC Classic winner Curlin, twice Horse of the Year.

A robustly made bay, Battle of Midway ran a bang-up third in the 2017 Kentucky Derby and ended his career with a game victory in the G1 BC Dirt Mile over Sharp Azteca, Practical Joke, and other high-class racers.

Connect won the 2016 G1 Cigar Mile but made only a single start this season, winning the G3 Westchester. A scopy horse in the mold of his sire, this horse possesses a similar type to the other Curlin, 2015 Travers Stakes winner Keen Ice.

That victory gave Keen Ice something no other stallion can boast: success against Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah. A good-looking bay, Keen Ice also won the Suburban at Belmont, ran second in the G1 Whitney and Jockey Club Gold Cup, was third in the BC Classic and Belmont Stakes.